The Barwon river. There were no prosecutions under the Water Act and the Water Management Act in 2016-17.
Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

The policing of water licences in New South Wales slowed to a trickle over the 12 months to June 2017, reinforcing allegations on the ABC’s Four Corners that on-the-ground investigations officers have been discouraged from dealing with water theft in the Murray-Darling basin.

Four Corners revealed in July serious allegations of water theft by two major irrigators in the Barwon-Darling river catchment. Whistleblowers who appeared on the program told how they had been stymied in their attempts to bring their concerns to the attention of the Department of Primary Industries and WaterNSW, the agency that took over enforcement in July 2016.

Now new figures tabled in NSW parliament show just how dramatic the fall in the number of prosecutions and fines issued during 2016-17 has been.

The number of penalty notices issued fell to just 14 in 2016-17, compared with 70 the previous year and 98 in 2014-15.

There were no prosecutions initiated during the period, whereas in most years previously there were four or five.

There were also dramatic falls in the number of stop work orders issued. These are used to prevent land owners building illegal water infrastructure, such as drains, pumps, or levies to divert water. Only three were issued, compared with 22 in 2015-16 and 76 in 2014-15.

The dramatic fall-off in prosecutions, penalty notices and even warning letters has corresponded with the government’s decision to move the strategic investigations unit from the Department of Primary Industries’ water division to the agency, WaterNSW.

WaterNSW is responsible for administering water licences, which means its major clients are irrigators.

The opposition’s spokesman on water, Chris Minns, said the information essentially confirmed people’s worst fears as to what the transfer of responsibility would do to prosecutions for water theft and other breaches of water licences.

“The fears were that the conflict of interest between having irrigators as clients and policing the licences would lead to this sort of result,” he said.

As Four Corners reported, enforcement staff have also been reduced since the transfer of responsibility to WaterNSW. Only four of six staff in the strategic investigations unit were transferred to WaterNSW. At the same time commonwealth funding for some additional positions ran out.

The fall-off in prosecutions is not explained by a change of tactics by the new agency. It appears the vast bulk of breach notifications were closed without any action being taken at all.

In the period since WaterNSW took over, there were 600 breach reports received, down slightly on the 635 the year previously, yet every category of action fell sharply, even warning letters, the most benign sanction.

Only 46 such letters were issued in 2016-17, compared with 217 in the previous year.

The NSW government has ordered an urgent review of water policy by the water expert Ken Matthews. In his interim report in August, he warned he shared Four Corners’ concerns about enforcement and doubts about the even-handedness of the department’s consultation arrangements with different groups of stakeholders about water management throughout the state.